Well, I've had my fill of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and I can tell you I didn't have a lot of expectations. Just because I didn't think it would be bad but more because I've seen a lot of origin movies in the Marvel universe at this point I know the ropes. New hero appears, can't control their powers yet, but they must come to their own realization, massive CGI battle at the end of the scene, then sequel setup. I wasn't expecting to be surprised. But honestly? This one was a surprise, and I had a blast with this one!
So this guy named Shaun, is just having a pretty normal life in San Francisco. He is currently a valet for his best friend Katy, and they are basically just having a lark, working on a shoestring budget and on no “special” errands. It's not a superheroes startling movie energy right off the bat, after all, and it's a pretty relatable way to start a superhero movie. But wait, that's not true, because it appears that Shaun is really Shang-Chi and his father is Xu Wenwu, this millenia-old warlord who is the head of a secret group called the Ten Rings. It's literally been hundreds of years since the guy's been alive due to these mystical rings that he wears, and he's basically built an empire out of the fear and power he has had for generations. As a child, Shang-Chi was trained to become this deadly fighter in order to survive, and at some point in his childhood he decided to flee from that lifestyle to pursue a "normal" life. But, of course, you can't run all the time, and after a while, his old ways catch him again.
Now to the fight scenes, as this is where this film shines the best. Some of these brawls are truly some of the best I've seen in any Marvel film, ever. I sat straight up early on in the bus fight like, “wait, this is actually really good.” It's fast paced, but not messy, you can actually follow every single hit, and they are not just putting all the quick cuts together to give it the impression of being cool. Each punch and kick has meaning and weight. There's also this battle on scaffolding that really felt like a more of a classic martial arts flick than a super hero movie, and I was super engrossed in it. I would say that Simu Liu did a lot of work getting ready for this job because it shows on camera, and he looks like he's doing it.
Secondly, Tony Leung... He took the film by a storm for me. I really had a lot of expectations when I first saw him but it was a completely different from what I expected. This guy has some depth. He wasnt a bad guy just because the plot requires it, he's a man of loss and grief, and Leung plays him so well that sometimes I empathized with him even with what he did... Not to make it easy, but the entire film is grounded.
Leading it is also Simu Liu, who does a decent job and she plays her character to the root.
After the story transitions to the hidden village, where Shang-Chi's family is on his mother's side, the world simply opens up. It's gorgeous, it's got some cool mythical creatures, and it's actually not like all of the typical Marvel settings that we've seen a hundred times. I do have one true gripe; it's the last part, when the fighting in martial arts turns more into a larger, CGI-ified confrontation. I was not going to say that it wasn't fun to watch, but I was missing the more "grounded" and hand-to-hand action of the early part of the film. It seriously felt like it couldn't help but be a typical superhero ending at the end.
That's a relatively, relatively small problem in a pretty decent film, anyway. The drama of the family, the cultural aspects and the performances are what makes it stand out and not simply another cookie cutter superhero movie in the Marvel series.
At the end of it I really was impressed. Nail-on-the-head acting, memorable characters, some emotional heft and, if I can say it myself, some of the season's best fight choreography, which is proven by the fact that I'm going to be asking for the same one in the movies.
Rating: 80/100